kitson



. '2 Sheets-Sheet 1. R. KITSON. COTTON OPENER.

(No Model.)

No. 351,868. Patented Nov. 2 1886.

N. FETER5. Pholn-Lilhogmpher. Washington a. c.

' 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. R. KITSON.

(No Model.)

COTTON? OPENER.

Patented Nov. 2, 18 86.

Ymg 2.

MW wk m" N. PTER5. Phowumo m ner. washin mn. n.c.

U ITED STATES PATENT OEEicE.

RICHARD KITSON, OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNORTO THE KITSON AoHINE COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

COTTON-OPENER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 351,868, dated November 2', 1886. Application filed April 7,1884. Serial No. 126,932. (No model.)

[" all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, RICHARD KITsoN, of Lowell, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Cotton-Openers, of which the following is a specification.

My improvement relates to machines for opening and cleaning cotton; and it consists in certain improvements and combinations in such machines, substantially as hereinafter described and claimed.

I11 the drawings is shown the machine de scribed and shown in the Letters Patent granted to me July 17, 1877, No. 193,094., to which my present improvements are represented as being applied.

Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of the machine for opening and cleaning cotton containing my improvements. Fig. 2isaview of the machine,partly in section, provided with a modification of my improvements shown in Fig. 1, as hereinafter described. Fig. 3 is a vertical section through a part of the gage-box provided with said modification.

A isthe outer casing of thefmachine. A feedapron, a,;is mounted upon rollers a a, upon which the fiber is placed to be carried forward to the grasping-rollers b b. The dividing-rollers c c tear apart and separate the fibers, which fall from them into the gage-box d, whence the cotton is carried forward by the rolls e e e to the beater B. From the latter it is borne on the current of air created by the beater striking the cotton from the nip of the rolls 6 0, through the cotton-trunk T, to the condensing screen-cylinders s s. The fiber is deposited upon the latter in the usual manner,

and is dropped by them into the gage-box d'.

' A dofter, cl", aids in removing the cotton from other side of it.

doffer may be revolved in either direction and at any desired speed.

It frequently becomes necessary inthe use of the machine to stop the graspingrolls b 1), dividing-rolls c c, and rolls 6 66 6 c and apron e. When such is the case, the beater B and screens running in theusual Inanner,and with the machine constructed with a gage-box, d, of the requisite size to furnish the sheet of cotton of proper thickness to the apron e and rolls 9 6 the cotton in the trunk T and upon the screens 8 s continues to be deposited in the gagebox d, while none passes therefrom.

.This gage-box thus frequentlybecomes filled entirely up to the screens 8 s, and the latter become clogged on accountof it with the surplus cotton. To avoid this difficuity'and at the same time feed forward a sheet of fiber of proper dimensions to the beater B", I make my gage-box d of double the'width usually employed in relation to the thickness of the sheet of fiber desired to be delivered by feedrolls e e longitudinally of the machine, as shown in the drawings,aud suspend a swinging partition, p, Fig. 1, upon a pivot or rod, p, passing through the side Walls of the gage-box on either side. This partition extends nearly across theinsidebreadth of the gage-box trans- Versely of the machine and swings freely upon the pivot or rod 1). When the cotton falls from the screens ssinto the gage-box d, itdrops first on one side of the partition 19 and fills the box on-that side to the top of the partition. This presses over the lower end of the partition 19 toward the other side of the box. As soon as the cotton has filled the space between one side of the box and the partition p up to the top of the latter, it falls on the other side of the partition 1) and fills the space on the The gage-box (1 thus receives all the cotton in the trunk and on the screens 8 swithout difficulty or clogging of the screens. When the apron e and rolls 6 e are again set in motion, the cotton on the side of the partitionp first filled in will be first fed forward to the beater B in a sheet ofiproper dimensions, because the lower end of the partition p was swung toward the other side of the box by the cotton on such side first filled. This is because the partition 1) and its side of the gage-box in the form of a wedge, with the widest end of such body ofcotton downward, and consequent- 1y slips downward easily. The cotton on the side last filled will for the same reason, and because it is between the partition and its side of the gage-box with the smaller end downward, be held back until substantially all on the other side has passed forward to beater B. Then the cotton on the sidelast filled in, as deseribed,will be released by the dropping back of the partition to a perpendicular position, or nearly so, and will in turn pass forward to the beater 13*. I thus double the holding capacity of the gage-box d in proportion to the thickness of the sheet delivered, while preserving its capacity to feed the cotton forward in a sheet 01' the proper dimensions.

Fig. 2 shows a modification of my improvement. The swinging partition 1) is made shorter, and the pivot p,on which it swings, is placed lower down in the gage-box, and one ,end of it projects through the side of the gagebox, and has attached to it on the outside of the box an arm, m, on the end of which is a weight, m. Pins m m are driven into the outside of the gage-box to arrest and hold the arm m when it and the weight are thrown over either way by hand, which pins project far enough from the side of the gage-box to be in the path of the arm. Above the swinging partition 19 is placed,within the gage box and crossing the same in line with the axis 1), the supplemental vertical fixed partition p", extending entirely acrossthe gage-box from side to side. The pins m m are placed in such relation to the arm m and swinging partition 1) that when the arm is arrested by one of them the swinging partition will be inclined under the cotton on one side of the fixed partition 19 and prevent its falling downward upon the apron e and rolls etc, and when the arm on is thrown over the other way and arrested by the other pin m the swinging partition will in like manner prevent the cotton passing downward below the other side of the fixed partition 11 I do not confine the use of my improvement to a machine in which the screens 8 sare used or in which the precise form of the apron e" and rollers e e is used, as it is evident that the screens may be omitted and other forms of drums or rollers may be used to convey the cotton out of the gage-box cl.

\Vhat I claim as new and of my invention is- 1. In combination with the gage-box d, the swinging partition 19, adapted t to obstruct either division of the gage-box and prevent passage of fiber therein, substantially as described.

2. The combination of the cotton-trunk T,

screens 8 s, the gage-box d, and the swinging partition 1), substantially as described.

3. The combination of the gage box d, swinging partition 10, apron e, and rolls 0" a, substantially as described.

4. The combination of the trunk T, the gagebox (1, and the swinging partition 2, substantially as described.

5. The combination of the gage-box d, the swinging partitionp, adapted to obstruct either division of the gage-box and prevent the passage of fiber therein, and the arm m, connected to the axis of the partition on the outside of the gage box and adapted to move the parti tion, substantially as described.

' RICHARD KITSON. Witnesses:

S. KITSON, DAi Io HALL Bron. 

